NO. 1: RECORD NUMBER OF HOMICIDES (STAFF NO. 1: STOCKTON FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY)

Readers' top 10 of 2012: Scenes too often repeated

In Stockton, 71 people lost their lives at the hands of others

With 58 homicides, Stockton set a grim record in 2011.

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By The Record

recordnet.com

By The Record

Posted Dec. 31, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Dec 31, 2012 at 8:12 AM

By The Record

Posted Dec. 31, 2012 at 12:01 AM
Updated Dec 31, 2012 at 8:12 AM

» Social News

With 58 homicides, Stockton set a grim record in 2011.

And 2012 was worse. The number of homicides investigated by Stockton police hit 58 in October, and it continued to rise, reaching 71 as the year's end approached. That's not counting the six other killings that happened in unincorporated areas in and around Stockton.

Devastating to the families of victims and the communities where they occurred, the violence continued throughout the year, across the city and seemingly any time or place, be it in a crowded area by daylight or on a lonely street in the dead of night.

As the violence mounted, the public noticed. It was likely on voters' minds when they took to the polls in November, when three of four incumbent City Council members, including Mayor Ann Johnston, were unable to hold onto their seats.

And the public also met with each other and city leaders to try and break the grip of violence in their hometown while law-enforcement agencies formed new partnerships to tackle violence.

Hope remains, too.

A program known as Operation Ceasefire is credited in helping Stockton knock down homicides in the 1990s, which had been another violent period in the city's history.

Operation Ceasefire is back, and it's in its first phases of implementation.

Readers of The Record picked the homicides as the top story of 2012.

But there was an anomaly in the voting that is worth noting.

More votes were cast for the story of a federal civil court awarding more than $2 million in damages to the family of Joey Pinasco Jr., the 21-year-old who was shot and killed by California Highway Patrol Officers in 2008.

An investigation by the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office and Sheriff's Office found the two involved officers were justified in their actions.

But a jury found the CHP liable for battery and wrongful death, and a federal judge ordered the state to pay.

The verdict and award for damages was one of the year's big stories.

The number of votes for this story exceeded votes gained by the next three top-vote getters combined, an anomaly that could be explained by an online campaign to garner votes for the Pinasco story.

The year's homicides, and the impact on the Stockton community, reflected a broader representation of the votes.

To discourage tampering in the future, The Record and recordnet.com will discontinue use of the ballot system used for this and previous years.